6!- HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. jsASTARTb 



rigTit, puTiesrent, jointed, milky. The leaves are opposite and ^ccws'.atcd, petioled, 

 acute, eatiro, smootii on both sides. Flowers ui umbels ; umbeOules tcriiiii'.^ating, or 

 opposite to ti.e tcirainatiiij;' liallet in pairs, pediincied, iai-oiucre none, t ut only a 

 few su'inilati.\l Jfiifleu. Peduucie Uie length oi' tiie It'iives, peaicsis bhortcr, one iloiv- 

 eied. L"iflr;ts ol' the calyx n-flex ; nectaries five-, round tne middle ccrjjuacle, ovate, 

 car-'cowiod obliquely imvards, witn a iiitie Uoriiirum tU^nectareous base, sabre shaped, 

 bent in towards the genitals. In tne mid.ile is u truiuace corpuscle, hollowed at the 

 tip, bluntly five-cornered, covered with five scales at the siiles, aiij gaping with 33 

 many chinks. Scales hodowed within. GlanJs five, r.anidish, blaci:, to vviiich are 

 nxedabovs, within the scales, hairs of glan lulferous peaiccis, in place of anthers; 

 iiiese glands are obiong, pellucid, panauriiorin, and nded with prohno nioistuie ; 

 styles two, hid wilirin t!ie coiuHin ; tne seeds are attached to tne receptiicle, fixed at 

 each end ; in the middle of the follicle, small, covered wita an aril, an I crowned with 

 a seshile j^apjjus of loi.tj 'ilKv diwn, by wid; ii they are fixed i.i a squaumiose manner, . 

 and which serves for tlicir dispersion. Tne coroiia is of a saffron colour, tliC nectaries 

 bright yellow, and the umbels being m./dt-rately large, give them a beautiful apj)ear- 

 ance. It, grows very common almost every where in Jamaica, and is called red head bf 

 the negroes. Browne observes, that in the cooier inland pastures the ilv;wcrj ars 

 changed to white, vvirich variety is frequentiv to be seen. 



Bnrham calls this plant bloo3-fl.owcr, and say?, "It is so called fro-n it? stopping 

 bleeding when all other remedies have failed ; and is. so well known in Jamaica that ^ 

 iieedeth no particular description. I knew a gentleman that had sucn a fiux of blood, 

 by the piles or hemorrhoids, that there was no stopping it, he himself, and all hi.i 

 friends, despairing of his life. At la-;t, he was aivised co tiiis flouer, whicii was im- 

 mediately got (for they grow almost every wheri), and bruised, and pressed out the 

 juice, and was given wilii a syringe ; l>y which he was perfectly cured. I had a patient 

 that had a virulent gonorrhea, and after I had carried off the virulence, and be^an to 

 use balsamics and restringents, I found it would not stop, and all the medicines 1 could 

 think of were to no purpose for above twelve months. At last he took a decoction of 

 the flowers, leaves, and stalk, of this plant, twice a-day, for five or six days, and it 

 made him perfectly firm ; and some years after he told me^ that he never had the iea^t 

 s. mptom i)f a gleet, or any other illness attended him in tliose parts. Lately, an an- 

 cient gentleman consulted me, who had a gieei upon him many years, v/hich he ap- 

 prehended was pure we.kness of the vessels, for he was very well in all other respects ; 

 I advi-e I him to make a tea of the dried flowers, and drink of it in the room of other 

 tea, and at the same hours, for a month ; in which time, he told me, it made him per- 

 fectly well, and said it was worth its weight in gold, and believed, if a man could make 

 it known in Europe, he would get an estate by ir. I have known many okl gleets cured 

 by it ; and I question not but it may be as useful to women, fur the Jluor albus, and 

 other excessive discharges." Jiurham, p. 22. 



The following case, v/hjch remarkabiy points out the styptic virtues of this plant, is 

 tedven from the manuscript of Dr. Anthony Robinson, who made many ingenious obser- 

 vations on die natural subjects of this island, about the middle of the last century ; and 

 whose untimely death, before his manuscript.; were properly arranged, was a great loss 

 to science, and to this island ; for it is-eviaent, from the specimens of his labours still 

 presfi-ved, that he was a man of real genius, and poisessed of uncomcnon talents for in- 

 -<lu.-triau3 res2ajch and ju3. dijcriuuii^tioa-;- > *' Mr, 



